I have £2000 pounds to spend on my College, what should I buy?

Question

I run a small FE college - we have good facilities but I have just been given an additional £2000 to spend, preferably on marketing. What should I buy that has a wow factor?

Answer 1

While I'm not sure what an FE college is, I would recommend doing a bit of research on what your target audience is using for information these days. Is it the internet? Buses? Ipods? TV? Etc and base your decision on that. Plus, you'll need to come up with a really rockin' campaign that will not only engage your audience but provoke them to CONTINUE thinking about you after your ad has "left the building".

If you want to send more details on the institution and your audience, I would be happy to send more specified ideas.

Answer 2

I have to say, with £2k, you aren't going to be able to market in such a way as to cause a stampede, but you could certainly raise some interest. What has gone down well every single year without fail at my college and both my unis are... goody bags. I'll get back to them in a moment. £2,000 won't get you many adverts but see if you can't put something in your local press. Small, repeated adverts have greater impact than a big, all-colour, one-hit-wonder; research suggests that people need to hear/see an advert around six times before they begin to internalise it. Also, if your ad stipulates that to get a goody bag, a filled-in ad must be handed in, with the return of the ads, you get a) to see how your marketing performed, which is invaluable information for future advertising, and b) future mail-shot addresses. (Incidentally, if you decide to go ahead with this, make sure you include 'while stocks last' on the ad somewhere, and this can be in small letters. It may sound petty, but without it, if your ad promises a free whatever, then a free whatever you must deliver, whether you have run out or not.)

In an ideal world, the bags would be College branded and contain branded keyrings, pens, badges, College advertisements, maps and useful information. Then there would be the fun stuff like crisps, lollipops, lipstick, condoms (free, of course, from the Family Planning Clinic who are usually happy to oblige), Smarties, Pot Noodles, local nightclubs/bars/pubs leaflets, and whatever else you can think to stuff in there. Often, local shops will donate freebies or special offer vouchers if they think it will pull in the customers.

The main con is that even if you only do 100, it can be a chore, and unless you enforce a strict budget, the costs can get out of hand. On the plus side, most local papers offer substantial discounts if you repeat-advertise, and of course, if you buy your treats in bulk, you may get the costs of those right down too.

Answer 3

Maby a computer, a small bilbord to see what the advert looks like.
Stationary to do hand planning or even advanced computer software.
Also maby a watter cooler as water help the brain so the studants could improve with there work!

Answer 4

Put it behind the bar and see how long it lasts before its all spent, look upon this as a marketing excercise

Answer 5

whats up i walked on the team while they chosen their very final participant and became the starter 2 days later. its incredibly as much as you and your activity bro. dont supply up and you will possibly desire to pass to the summer season shootaround in the event that they have one. its constantly effective at those activities. stable success to you

Answer 6

I was thinking you could start a college in Africa someplace for that.

I'm selling a telescope on ebay. Maybe that would be a wow thing.

Answer 7

Buy yourself a laptop, that should come in handy/will be very useful for your studies.

Answer 8

I think you should offer a large scholarship for middle aged women returning to college for graduate degrees. In the even you do this, please contact me! :o)


Sue

Answer 9

a mac laptop. The latest!

Answer 10

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